a disbelieving frown plastered across his mouth.
“One more time.” His deep, husky voice broke the silence.
She forgot how potent he was up close. Dark brown hair cropped in style, and shoulders wide enough to block her view of the front door. Even in jeans and a boring shirt, danger vibrated off him. He was strong, determined and clever. Everything she needed right now. The same guy she’d avoided for years despite his friendship with Dan.
Liam’s eyebrow lifted. “Maura?”
Back to reality. “The police are looking in the wrong place.”
He tapped his fingertips together. “You think Dr. Hammer was kidnapped.”
She wanted to believe it because the idea was better than the alternative where her boss had something to do with the fireball that consumed the lab, and nearly took her along with it. “Possibly.”
“Did you recognize the people who took Dr. Hammer?”
“I saw him get into a car.”
Liam sat up straighter as the gold flecks in his green eyes brightened. “I notice you’re answering different questions from the ones I’m asking.”
She hoped he might miss that part. Fooling him would be hard, impossible even. But until she figured out who she could trust and how to keep everyone she cared about safe, she had to be careful. “It might be smart if you stayed ignorant about some things.”
He opened his arms and gestured around the room. “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
He wasn’t wrong. Sprawled on the grass with her lungs burning from the flames, she’d needed a safe house and immediately thought of him. A former undercover police officer and current corporate security expert, he was the logical choice. She depended on his sense of duty and a rock-hard loyalty to her brother to gain his cooperation.
Problem was she dragged him into her mess even though she could never hope to control him. Rather than fight, she gave him something in return for his help—information. “I heard someone in the building right before the explosion. I saw Dr. Hammer hustle out of there while I was trying not to catch on fire.”
Liam shifted on the table. “So, you’re saying you did see the kidnappers.”
“No.”
“Maura.”
“I’m saying Dr. Hammer wasn’t kidnapped.”
Liam’s face twisted in disbelief. “How do you know?”
“I just do.” When Liam continued frowning, she tried again. “I have a theory and I’ll find proof.”
“Of what, exactly?”
She wasn’t ready to give the details. “With your help.”
“We’re still having two different conversations.”
Her mind raced ahead. She needed the documents she hid under the deck in Liam’s back patio. She needed the laptop from her apartment. She needed to stay hidden while she worked out where Dr. Hammer went and why.
“We’re talking about evidence,” she said.
“I still don’t know what we’re proving.”
For her investigation to work she needed to be mobile. Being interrogated could ruin everything. “No police. I’m supposed to be dead, so I’ll be dead.”
“Hey!” Liam clapped his hands together. “I can see your mind spinning. Stop thinking for a second and talk to me.”
“How do I stop thinking?”
“I’m serious.”
From the way his jaw locked, she could tell he was. To calm him back down, she slipped her palm over his hand. “Liam, I have to do this my way.”
“I can’t help if I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I need you.” She’d said those same words to him nine years before. She was a kid then and he’d ignored her. Now she came to him as a woman with a problem.
He slipped his fingers through hers. “Maura …”
“You know what it took for me to ask you for anything.”
He broke eye contact but stayed quiet.
“How hard it was for me to turn to you,” she added.
He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “That happened a long time ago.”
“But it’s always between us.”
“Doesn’t have to be.”
Her mind refused to go there. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by her emotions. “Are you going to help me?”
“I still don’t understand any of this.”
She recognized a man on the verge of defeat. Saw the signs in his slumped shoulders and the hard lines of his face. “But you’re not turning me down.”
For a few seconds he just sat there. Didn’t say a word. Finally he spoke. “Not this time.”
LIAM STOOD IN A DARK ALLEY with his back pressed against a wall and a supposed dead woman at his side. It was a lot to take in at one in the morning. If he weren’t so confused, he’d mind the crisp air. Good thing he had his frustration to keep him toasty warm.
That would teach him to let Maura set the evening agenda. He suggested she stay at the house while he made a run for whatever she needed. She could hide and he would take the risk. Since no one was looking for him, the chance of trouble was minimal. A quick and efficient strategy.
She had overruled him. Carried on about it being her life and then started talking in half sentences again. He gave in to gain a second of quiet. Now he was stuck in the middle of some sort of covert raid. The whole thing struck him as overly dramatic and unnecessary.
He followed her gaze to the third floor. “Tell me again why we’re here.”
“I need some of my things.”
“From in there?” He pointed up at the corner window to make sure he was looking at the right place.
She nodded, her gaze never leaving her target. “It’s my condo.”
No lights. No movement. Ten more minutes of staring at nothing and his mind would go numb. “I think it’s safe.”
“The police could be in there.”
“You do know I’m former police, right?”
She actually crouched down as if that would better hide her from the imaginary officers she thought were hiding in the bushes. “So?”
Liam took in her stiff
